by T. R. Harris
“I don’t understand,” said Lila.
Panur glared at Riyad as if to say Now look what you’ve done!
The mutant turned his attention to the young Formilian. “For a long time, I had speculated upon a series of events that would leave the Sol-Kor without a traditional queen. So I engineered a new type of Sol-Kor female, one more along the lines of other species such as Humans and Formilians—even Juireans—yet with…improvements.”
“But only one, like an Eve character for the Sol-Kor? That’s…messed up,” Sherri said.
“She is able to reproduce at an accelerated pace, as well as determine the sex of her offspring. The plan was for her to produce an initial population of females who would then give birth to even more females and so forth. Eventually, the genders would reach parity once population stability was reached.”
“So there’s no more mass production of hungry, flesh-eating monsters?” Sherri asked. “At least that’s something positive.”
“On the contrary, Sherri, it is now much worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“Initially, you are correct. There will be a lull in Sol-Kor population growth. Yet in a very short time there could be a million females born each day, with the population growing exponentially as a result. I created a new strain of Sol-Kor that can reach sexual maturity in as little as six standard years. Once the initial threshold is met, the population will grow even faster than was possible through the efforts of the one Eternal Queen.”
“Why would you do such a thing?”
“As I said, it began as a thought experiment, and then it was completed because…well, because I could.”
“Not everything you think of should be created.”
“You’re wrong. Under the proper conditions, they should.”
“I’m not going to argue with you—”
“It would be a losing effort—”
“Stop it!” Riyad commanded. “This isn’t helping us get Adam back.” He took a step closer to Panur. “Sorry about your mother, but she was kind of a bitch. So the question remains: Will you help us or not? We’re running out of time.”
“Indeed, you are.” The mutant surveyed the faces in the room. All of them looked anxious, while Lila’s displayed an expression of pain. Panur snickered, which was not what Riyad and Sherri had been expecting.
“You think this is funny?” Sherri scolded.
Panur smiled back at her. “No, I do not. This is even more serious and dangerous than you can imagine. May I take a seat?”
“Please do. Make yourself comfortable. Do you want me to get you a pillow for your weary head, perhaps a brandy to warm your insides?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you anyway.” Panur settled into the command chair, while Sherri and Riyad sat down as well. Studying Panur’s demeanor, Riyad was pretty sure he wasn’t going to seek revenge against him for killing his mother. That was one hurdle crossed. There were more to come.
“Let me tell you why the situation has grown proportionally worse…and why it’s now imperative that I help you.”
“You’re going to help us?” Riyad exclaimed, caught off-guard.
“If I don’t, you will all die.”
“You sure have a way with words,” Sherri growled.
“Let me explain some basic truths.” He looked to Benefis. “You say I have been responsible for all the death caused by the Sol-Kor, and in a way you are correct. Yet throughout the centuries, I have regulated the technological advancement of the Sol-Kor by releasing only those innovations I wished to release, and when I wished to release them. I have so many more ideas in my head that if revealed would make the Sol-Kor invincible, now and forever. Yet I have allocated these advancements a little at a time, over five thousand years. But now comes J’nae…
“As I mentioned, she is a creature I created, designed to be essentially my clone. She is just as intelligent as I am, with the same innovative spirit…yet with a difference.”
“What difference?” Benefis asked.
“She has been held in relative isolation for several hundred years. Yes, she had access to news and research materials, yet in a very real sense she lacks real-world experience. A creature may have unlimited intellectual potential, yet if they are never exposed to a possibility, they may never think of it on their own.”
“So she’s like a child?”
“In a way. Yet when exposed to a possibility, even if it is not something that currently exists in her reality, she will think on it until she finds a way to create it for herself. Just knowing that something is possible will become a challenge for her to figure out how it is done.”
“So if we do use the Najmah Fayd to jump into Sol-Kor space, and even if we aren’t caught, just knowing that such a thing is possible will get her working on the problem.” Riyad felt his heart sink to his feet. So much for taking the Najmah Fayd into Sol-Korland.
“The sad truth is: if I can think of it, so can she. To be honest, I have known how to adapt a starship into a TD-portal for a thousand years, I just never had any need to reveal such. I also knew what that would mean to Sol-Kor growth and the subsequent demise of victim races. Contrary to your belief, Juirean, I am not a cold-blooded killer. I have used the Sol-Kor to visit countless worlds across the five universes. I thrill at the chance to meet new species, and I often regret when the time arrives for their harvest.
“As far as J’nae is concerned, one of her major problems at this time is accessing your universe. She will seek to solve this problem, and there will no holding back once a solution is found. She is the Sol-Kor, and that is her only concern. In summary: it is inevitable that she will come to the same conclusion I have, with or without our influence.”
The room remained silent as the consequences sank in. There was no avoiding the obvious: the Sol-Kor would be back, and there would be no way to stop them this time.
“Yet there is more.”
“I do not think I can handle more,” Arieel said, gripping her daughter’s hand even tighter.
“Lay it on us, Panur,” Sherri said. “My day’s a mess already.”
“As mentioned earlier, I release my innovations according to my timetable, not that of the Sol-Kor. With J’nae as the new leader of the Colony, she will be operating on her own schedule, and solely for the benefit of her people. As with the TD-capable starship, possibilities will continue to flow to her at an ever-increasing pace. And with a burgeoning population to feed and an eternity to rule, she will develop things even I have never dreamed of.”
“You make her out to be some kind of megalomaniac bent on universal domination,” Lila said.
“She is like us, Lila, immortal and of superior intellect. Her only purpose in life will be to expand her horizons. Whereas we sought to create a race of similar beings, she will be content being the one and only of her kind. She already has a trillion loyal subjects, and many more to come. She will provide them with the means to spread even further and faster than ever before.”
“Does this make you a proud papa?” Sherri asked.
“What it makes me is determined to stop her.”
“How is that possible?” Benefis asked. “You have just described…the end of time for everyone except the Sol-Kor.”
“Just as your people sought to neutralize me, I will have to do the same.”
“She’s your daughter,” Arieel stated.
“She is more my creation, a project, and as Sherri pointed out earlier, not all my creations should have seen the light of day.”
“So I was right!”
“On the contrary, I said under the proper conditions. Those conditions have not been met in J’nae’s case, thanks in part to her premature assumption of her position and the unlimited resources it affords her. For that I have Misters Tarazi and Cain to thank. Now it will be up to me to clean up the mess they have created.”
Shrugging of the insult, Riyad stood up. He surveyed the concerned faces staring back at him, before focusing his at
tention on Panur. “So, it looks like we’re back in…and with the Najmah Fayd.”
“Just as soon as I can make the modifications.”
Chapter 12
“There’s a ship closing on us!” Sherri called out to the distracted bridge crew.
“Juireans?”
“Nope…believe it or not, it’s Syrus Jacs. I didn’t think he stuck around after all the fireworks started.”
“He is a tenacious being,” Benefis said. “Probably looking to collect his fee…from someone.”
“We can’t let him know Panur is still alive—I mean thawed out,” Riyad said. “He may tell the Juireans.”
“He’s hailing us…what should I do?” Sherri looked to see who was going to take charge.
“We must first find out what he knows,” offered Panur. “He may have been monitoring your activities and already know of my recovery. If that’s the case, and we shun him now, he could sell that information to the Juireans. I vote that we destroy his ship now, just to make certain he doesn’t do that.”
“He may also know nothing,” Arieel countered.
“So lure him in and find out.”
“I would also vote to kill him,” Benefis added with enthusiasm.
It was Sherri’s turn to pile on: “I’m with you!”
Arieel shook her head. “What is the matter with all of you? Are you savages with no compassion?”
Sherri, Panur, and Benefis looked at each other, before the Human voiced the unanimous thought. “That’s right, we are. But this has nothing to do with compassion and more to do with survival.”
“Panur, would not you require additional supplies for your conversion of this ship?” Lila asked. “This creature Jacs had been our main source of advanced technology since our arrival in the Frontier. He may still have value.”
“I could also serve as your broker,” Benefis offered. Riyad could see the greed in the alien’s yellow eyes.
“Lila is correct,” Panur stated. “Syrus Jacs already knows our needs, and he has been trustworthy in the past. Forgive me, my Juirean friend, but I don’t know you.”
“So do I open a link or not?” Sherri asked impatiently.
“I will speak with him,” Panur said, stepping up to Sherri’s station. He nodded. “Syrus Jacs, this is Panur.”
“Panur? It can’t be! I saw your ship destroyed.”
“Ships can be destroyed, I cannot.”
“This is great news! Where are my credits?”
“They were aboard the Pegasus II.”
“So you’re saying you no longer need the modules? Unfortunately they were a special order, and I will require a thirty percent cancellation fee.”
“Or what?” Sherri cried out. Panur frowned at the Human.
“Who was that?”
“Just one of my old friends. Let me discuss the matter here for a moment.” He signaled for Sherri to mute the link. “I have been thinking…your ship, Riyad, uses a modified SCAC fuel source, and when I make the conversion it will have to be the 18’s that Syrus has aboard his vessel. We therefore need to go through with the transaction.”
“The Najmah Fayd came to me with a full power charge, so I haven’t had to think about replacement mods. How much are SCAC-18’s?”
“One hundred seventeen thousand Juirean credits each.”
Riyad was stunned. “And you need five of them?”
“That’s correct.”
“That’s five hundred eighty-five thousand credits,” Sherri announced. “Anyone have that kind of cash lying around?”
“Not aboard the Fayd,” said Riyad, dumbfounded.
“I have it on my planet,” Panur stated.
“You mean the planet where you’ve been hiding?” Riyad asked. There was something in the mutant’s tone that made him ask the question.
“No…it is the planet I own.”
“You own a planet?” Benefis asked.
“It is a small one, but yes.”
“He’s beeping us again,” said Sherri.
Panur nodded. “Syrus, we have discussed the matter and we’re willing to go through with the transaction.”
“You are?”
“Yes. However, the credits I brought with me are no more, as you can understand why. I will ask that you accompany us to my world, where settlement will be made.”
“Where is that?”
“I will not divulge that information within a link. You will have to follow us. And I must warn you, no unauthorized transmissions are to be made from your ship. If so, I will instruct the captain of this vessel to destroy you without hesitation.”
“What makes you think he could destroy—”
Anticipating the conversation, Riyad had already plotted a quick hop to a location just behind Jacs’ ship. He made the jump with weapons charged and glowing on any close-range detector.
Jacs was cut off in mid-sentence as the Najmah Fayd disappeared off his screen, only to reappear a heartbeat later, and in perfect firing position behind him. “Okay…I agree to your terms. Please lead on.”
“It is a pleasure doing business with you, Syrus Jacs.”
Chapter 13
It took two days to reach Panur’s world, and as they swept once around it in orbit, Riyad saw that it was indeed a small planet. However, its heavy core density afforded it a gravity equal to about .85 of Earth, along with an atmosphere rich in nitrogen and oxygen.
“How the hell did you end up owning an entire planet?” Sherri asked, as she too surveyed the world from space.
“It was given to me—and to Lila.”
“Given why?” asked Arieel.
Panur looked to Lila and smiled. Arieel’s daughter reacted with a small smirk of her own. “Forgive us, Mother, but Panur and I have been posing as gods.”
“Gods?” Riyad, Sherri and Arieel’s voices all blended together in a very pleasing three-part harmony.
Arieel continued as a solo: “In what manner?”
“All manners,” Panur chimed in, a rather pleased expression on his face. “I chose this world because the indigenous species has basic intelligence, a firm grasp of technology…and they already had a plethora of gods which we could infiltrate.”
“How so?”
“As we in this room are aware, gods are the creation of the worshippers, not the other way around. So when Lila and I began to demonstrate our unique abilities in person, it didn’t take long for the population to discard their old gods in lieu of some new ones—us. Forgive me, Arieel, but it is similar to what the Speakers of your world have done for two thousand years. We put on some shows…and the next thing we knew the entire species had dedicated their lives to us. They even offered legal documents handing over ownership of the planet. We didn’t ask for that, but we took it anyway.”
“And what did you expect to gain from such a…deception?”
“A place to experiment with a new race of immortals. The natives would embrace these new creatures, offering us protection, anonymity, and all the wealth we desired.”
“And how’s that working out for you?” Sherri asked, sensing from Lila’s expression that all was not well in Fantasyland.
Panur looked at Lila, and his expression changed dramatically. He looked sheepish, almost embarrassed. “Unfortunately, with all my wisdom I still have much to learn about interpersonal relationships.”
“You mean like between you…and Lila?”
“Exactly.”
Sherri’s grin was wider than Riyad had ever seen it. She was ecstatic. “You two can’t get along, is that what you’re saying?”
“I have never had to accommodate such an intellect, especially not one close to my own.”
“Equal to yours,” Lila stated.
“That is assuming quite a lot, Lila.”
“Yet it is a fact, whether you choose to accept it or not.”
“I have been alive for five thousand years. My depth of experience is far greater than yours.”
“But not your ability to c
omprehend and evaluate. In terms of raw ability, I am every bit your equal.”
“Or so you say.”
Lila looked to her mother. “He is insufferable.”
“And she is unreasonable.”
Sherri laughed out loud. “So what…separate beds?”
“There will be no need for such, not until he treats me with more respect.”
Arieel went to her daughter and hugged her. “I’m here for you, Lila, should you require understanding and compassion.” She looked over Lila’s shoulder at Panur, a dark gleam in her eye.
“I feel I am without allies here,” Panur said in a huff.
“I’m with you, man,” Riyad said. “Can’t live with them, can’t outsmart them either. Hell, in your case, you can’t even kill them!”
“Yet I can outsmart—”
“See what I mean, Mother—insufferable.”
“Are we going to land this tub or not?” Sherri asked with a lilt in her voice. “Or do we continue with this riveting episode of Dr. Phil?”
“Who is Doctor Fill?” Benefis asked.
********
Panur’s adoring subjects ended up being squat little creatures with huge heads and large round eyes. They were stocky and incredibly strong for their size, which was slightly shorter that Panur. Lila, for her part, had continued to grow. She was now over eight inches taller than Panur, and Riyad saw how she enjoyed leaning over him in a dominating fashion during conversations. Even between immortal mutant aliens, power games were played.
The two mutants had only been on the planet for a year, yet in that time the awestruck natives had constructed a magnificent palace for their two living gods. Apparently gold was plentiful here, and held in as much veneration as it was in most primitive societies. The building was literally covered in shiny gold, every square inch of it, except for the gold-tinted windows. Riyad had to squint against the building’s glare as they exited the Najmah Fayd and made their way over to Syrus Jacs’ ship.
The planet was called Worak-nin on the charts, but Panur had renamed it Panurland in honor of…well, himself. Lila bristled when he mentioned this to the others, seeing that her name had been excluded. Not a wise move on the part of the so-called genius intellect, Riyad thought. Even a dumb guy like him knew better.